A B.C. gangster linked to one of the biggest arms seizures in Canadian history has pleaded guilty in Montreal to a series of drug, explosives and firearms charges.

Prosecutors said Shane “Wheels” Maloney controlled the massive weapons cache, which contained 1,475 sticks of dynamite, two pounds of C-4 explosives, remote controls for the explosives, detonators and hundreds of firearms and prohibited gun parts.

Police found the cache during raids in October 2012 as part of Project Loquace, a lengthy investigation by the Sûreté du Québec into an international drug ring importing up to 75 kilograms of cocaine per week through links to Mexican and South American cartels.

Jean Pascal Boucher, spokesman for the director of criminal prosecutions, confirmed Wednesday that Maloney pleaded guilty to trafficking 25 kg of cocaine, committing his offences for the benefit of a criminal organization, possessing explosives and three firearms charges including possession of a gun for the purpose of illegally transferring it.

Several other charges against Maloney were dropped as part of his plea deal, and he dropped his application to have his charges stayed due to court delays in the case.

The defence and prosecution are making a joint submission for a 10-year sentence minus the time Maloney has been in pre-trial custody. Maloney’s sentencing is set for March 15.

Larry AmeroSpecial to PNG

The 39-year-old was splitting his time between Vancouver and Montreal prior to his arrest on Nov. 1, 2012, along with B.C. gangsters Larry Amero, a Hells Angel, and Rabih Alkhalil, who is also charged in the Vancouver murder of rival Sandip Duhre.

Maloney, who has been in a wheelchair since a motorcycle accident 15 years ago, had filed a lawsuit against the Province of Quebec, alleging that as a paraplegic he was being discriminated against while in pre-trial custody. A judge last year ruled against the discrimination claim, but did order jail officials to review his security classification every 45 days.

Maloney is tied to the infamous Irish West End Gang in Montreal.

More than 100 people were arrested as part of the Loquace investigation, but police in both Quebec and B.C. said at the time that Maloney, Amero and Alkhalil were kingpins of the drug operation. They said the cocaine conspiracy was hatched in B.C., then moved to Quebec.

Rabih AlkhalilPNG

Amero remains in jail in Quebec and is set to go to trial in July. Alkhalil’s trial is scheduled to start in January 2018. Both have also filed applications to have their cases thrown out due to the delay in getting to trial.

Amero was a leading figure in the Hells Angels White Rock chapter before joining the breakaway West Point group.

He moved to Montreal after an assassination attempt in Kelowna in August 2011 left him seriously wounded and Jonathan Bacon, his Red Scorpions friend, dead.

Alkhalil grew up in Metro Vancouver, but moved with his family to Ottawa after two of his brothers were murdered here.

He was arrested on his Loquace charges in Greece and later extradited to Canada. He is also awaiting trial in Ontario for the targeted murder of Johnnie Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy in June 2012.

Amero and his associates were identified as being part of a B.C. gang alliance dubbed the Wolf Pack, which was locked in a bloody conflict with rivals from what police dubbed the Dhak-Duhre group.

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